Port Fairy drug dealer freed on appeal

A PORT Fairy drug dealer who reoffended just two days after receiving a suspended jail sentence has walked from court after a successful appeal.

Matthew Brett Lanyon, 28, of Baulch Crescent, appealed in the Warrnambool County Court against the severity of a 10-month jail sentence.

Lanyon pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court on January 31 this year to trafficking cannabis and amphetamines and possessing a prohibited weapon and cannabis.

He was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment and was to serve four months with the remaining six months suspended for 18 months.

On Friday, Judge Paul Grant allowed his appeal and replaced the jail term with a 12-month community corrections order.

Conditions of the order include that Lanyon complete 180 hours’ community work and undertake treatment, rehabilitation and testing for drugs and alcohol as required.

The judge said Lanyon had been involved in serious offending and a major aggravating feature was that he had been caught just two days after being in court and receiving a suspended jail sentence.

That was imposed in the Hamilton Magistrates Court on June 26 last year after Lanyon refused a breath test and failed to obey an alcohol interlock condition on his driver’s licence.

Two days later police raided Lanyon’s Port Fairy home and located 52 grams of cannabis, 11 grams of amphetamine, 243 deal bags, a tick list, cannabis seeds, a blender, two sets of scales, four mobile telephones and medication tablets.

Judge Grant said Lanyon had no prior drug-related offending, his father was gravely ill and he was keeping his father’s business afloat.